Abstract

Exact rock classification helps suitable support patterns to be installed. Face mapping is usually conducted to classify the rock mass using RMR (Rock Mass Ration) or Q values. There have been several attempts to predict the grade of rock mass using mechanical data of jumbo drills or probe drills and photographs of excavation surfaces by using deep learning. However, they took long time, or had a limitation that it is impossible to grasp the rock grade in ahead of the tunnel surface. In this study, a method to predict the Q value ahead of excavation surface is developed using recurrent neural network (RNN) technique and it is compared with the Q values from face mapping for verification. Among Q values from over 4,600 tunnel faces, 70% of data was used for learning, and the rests were used for verification. Repeated learnings were performed in different number of learning and number of previous excavation surfaces utilized for learning. The coincidence between the predicted and actual Q values was compared with the root mean square error (RMSE). RMSE value from 600 times repeated learning with 2 prior excavation faces gives a lowest values. The results from this study can vary with the input data sets, the results can help to understand how the past ground conditions affect the future ground conditions and to predict the Q value ahead of the tunnel excavation face.